from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English

transitive v. To follow or pursue with a view to reach, execute, or accomplish; to endeavor to obtain or complete; to carry on; to continue.

transitive v. To seek to obtain by legal process.

transitive v. To pursue with the intention of punishing; to accuse of some crime or breach of law, or to pursue for redress or punishment, before a legal tribunal; to proceed against judicially.

intransitive v. To follow after.

intransitive v. To institute and carry on a legal prosecution.

from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

To follow up; pursue with a view to attain or obtain; continue endeavors to accomplish or complete; pursue with continued purpose; carry on; follow up: as, to prosecute a scheme; to prosecute an undertaking.

In law: To seek to obtain by legal process: as, to prosecute a claim in a court of law.

To arraign before a court of justice for some crime or wrong; pursue for redress or punishment before a legal tribunal: as, to prosecute a man for trespass or for fraud.

To proceed against or pursue by law: said of crimes.

Synonyms To follow out, persevere in.—2 . To arraign.

To carry on a legal prosecution; act as a prosecutor before a legal tribunal.

CHETRY: And at the end of the day, the prosecution was a little bit controversial, because what they were originally trying to prosecute, which is this leak of covert CIA agent, no one ever ended up facing charges for that.